CITIES in Spain have pulled together to better promote the country to the fast-growing Indian market through a multi-city fam trip for Indian travel consultants this month.

Backed by national tourism promotion board Turespaña, the tour begins in Madrid and takes 18 leading Indian operators to a selection of Spanish cities that are on the UNESCO World Heritage sites list, among them Salamanca and Tarragona. October 1 was given over specifically to meetings between the tour party and representatives from local incoming agencies.

A spokesperson for the Madrid Visitors and Convention Bureau said the CVB had decided to join other cities in hosting the fam trip following the city’s first-ever participation at SATTE in New Delhi in January.

Madrid now rates India as a “priority interest market” with the capital’s part of the tour programme focusing heavily on gastronomy as well as its cultural, historic and artistic offer.

While recognising that regional markets in Asia remain the favourites for Indian travellers, Spain claims to be growing its share at an average 10.5 per cent a year.

Last year, there were 21,470 Indian arrivals to the capital region, up 112 per cent on the previous year. The national target is to increase Indian tourist numbers five-fold by 2020.

The Madrid bureau said its typical Indian visitor comes from the middle to higher income group, but also includes a “very relevant” number of incentive and business travellers, and many who are “frequently doing multi-destination trips”.